The controversy over Muslim
women wearing veils or headscarves is increasing in some parts of the world.
Recently, Jack Straw, a prominent member of Britain's parliament, ignited a
debate in his country when he said that Muslim women who visit his office should
remove their veils. He said it would improve communication, and called the veil
a visible statement of separation. The issue of veils, and sometimes the Muslim
headscarf, is also heating up in other places, including the United States.

This Muslim teaching assistant ignited a
debate on the rights of individuals and organizations

In England, a Muslim teaching
assistant was suspended in October after she refused to remove her veil, called
a niqab, during school lessons. She filed a lawsuit against the school. The
court dismissed her claims of religious discrimination and harassment but she
won a victimization suit against her school. Her case became part of a debate
over the religious identity of British Muslims.

Reacting to the case, British Prime
Minister Tony Blair called the veil a mark of separation that prevents Muslim
women from fully integrating into society. More than one-and-one-half-million
Muslims live in Britain.

France has the largest Muslim
population in Europe. Four-and-one-half-million Muslims live there. In France,
veils are banned in schools along with other religious clothing and articles.

In Tunisia, a Muslim country, women
are prohibited from wearing the Muslim headscarf, or hijab, in public. Tunisian
President Zine El Abidine Ali says the hijab came to his country as an uninvited
sectarian form of dress.

That ban on the hijab sparked a
recent Muslim protest at Tunisia's embassy in Washington. A group of American
Muslims called the prohibition a violation of Islamic women's rights.

"Regardless of what soil we stand
on, we feel the injustice of the Tunisian women," said one protestor.

"By Tunisia being a Muslim country,
that it seems illogical and irrational, first of all, for something like that to
even occur, as well as even to know why they would do it,” she said. “The other
thing is, that just in general, no country has the right to take away someone's
civil rights or their religious rights."

In the United States, the veil
issue has also been addressed in courtrooms. One case took place in October in
the midwestern city of Detroit, Michigan, which has one of the country's largest
Muslim populations.

Muslim businesswoman Ginnnah
Muhammad went before a judge to contest a bill from a car rental company. The
judge dismissed her case when she would not remove her veil.

"When the judge asked me to take my
veil off in court, I felt inhuman," she said. But Judge Paul Parah said he
needed to see her face to judge her truthfulness. "I have to balance that.
These are very delicate issues."

In the southern state of Florida,
several women were told they could not wear a veil for their driver's license
photo.

Khadija Athman, from Kenya, works
on Muslim civil rights issues for
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, a Muslim civil
rights group. "I think in terms of drivers licenses and passport photographs
it's reasonable to ask a person to have their face shown because it's a form of
identification,” she said. “There is no other way you can identify this person
as this is the person who is in this picture in the first place."

Ibrahim Hooper, Communications
Director for CAIR, says the Muslim holy book, the Quran, indicates women should
dress modestly. He says many Islamic scholars say women should cover their
heads. He also says they have the right to wear a veil.

"The vast majority of Muslim
scholars, both past and present, have determined that the requirements for a
Muslim's women's attire is to cover everything except the face and the hands.
We're against any restrictions on religious attire, or any time that the state
would try to impose a particular form of dress."

But some Muslim women, like author
Asra Nomani, say the veil is a sign of oppression, making women faceless and
powerless. She has written about her experiences being a Muslim woman in the
U.S. and says she has been harassed by people at the mosque she attends for not
wearing a headscarf.

"To me, the veil is a very, very
frightening expression of control of women."

Ibrahim Hooper says what a Muslim
woman wears should be her choice. "No one should be forced into any particular
attire. But if somebody chooses not to wear what is commonly regarded as
Islamic attire, that's their choice, and they shouldn't be attacked or abused
because of that."

The controversy over Muslim women's
dress is not likely to end any time soon as the Muslim population continues to
grow in the U.S., Britain and France and several other western countries.